Last Friday we finally started something in our kitchen we’ve been intending to do for a couple of years now – curing a full pork belly into Pancetta Tesa (flat pancetta, as opposed to pancetta arrotolata – rolled pancetta, or pancetta steccata – rolled and pressed between sticks).
I’ve helped a couple of friends do this and been amply rewarded with roughly a third of the cured belly each time, but this is our first in our own damn kitchen run at it.
Every time I’ve been involved in setting one of these beauties up we’ve more or less followed the recipe of Michael Ruhlman and Brian Polcyn of Salumi and Charcuterie fame (their books are invaluable resources and need to be on your shelf), though we’ve typically added a whisper of brown sugar and some heat in the form of red pepper flakes or crushed red pepper.
Ruhlman and Polcyn (R&P) are masters at this, and have two pancetta recommendations that are worth mentioning here. First, grab your pork belly with skin on if possible, the skin is useful in so many ways (not the least of which is the mighty pork rind); the skin helps the pancetta tesa keep its flat shape.
R&P also feel that, for the pancetta tesa, use of pink salt (sodium nitrite) isn’t necessary, though using it will ensure the pink coloration you’re used to seeing in your bacon. If you do a bit of digging around for different recipes out there, some indeed call for pink salt to be used for pancetta tesa.
I’ll be pulling our cured belly out of the fridge later today and will grab some pics and keep the Chi Wulff clan updated as we hang it to dry for the next few weeks. These are ready and delicious right out of the cure, though a few weeks of drying make the belly just a bit more dense, chewy and the flavor intensifies almost magically.
This is just too danged easy to not have one hanging in the kitchen or your drying room year round.
Sea salt, 3% of meat weight
1/4 cup juniper berries, crushed
3 tbsp. toasted black peppercorns, roughly cracked
1 tbsp. dark brown sugar
8 fresh garlic cloves, minced
8 bay leaves, crumbed into small pieces
8 2-3 inch sprigs of fresh rosemaryOne 9-10 lb. fresh pork belly
Rinse the pork belly and pat dry; weigh the pork belly (metric makes the math easier) and multiple by 0.03 to determine the amount of sea salt needed.
Mix the cure ingredients together well.
Rub your belly. Place the pork belly in a large enough nonreactive container to lay it flat (get a big-assed ziploc) and rub both sides well with the cure mixture. Seal it up tight.
Refrigerate for 5-7 days, flipping the belly and re-rubbing the cure around at least once.
Remove the pork belly and rinse the cure off under cold water or white wine.
Dry it. Weigh the pork belly again and record the result. Poke a small hole in a corner of the belly and run a loop of butcher’s twine through the meat. Hang it for 2-3 weeks until it’s lost 30% of it’s post cure weight.
Now go to town with your home-cured pancetta.
Enjoy.
